Julien bridge

The Pont Julien spans the Calavon approximately five kilometers north of the town of Bonnieux in the French Vaucluse department. The bridge is part of the Via Domitia, a Roman road that connected Narbonne (Colonia Narbo Martius) with Turin (Augusta Taurinorum). Its name derives from its proximity to the town of Apt (Colonia Apta Julia). It replaced an older bridge, traces of which can still be seen on individual pillars.

Construction and data
The Pont Julien is 117.70 m long and 5.90 m wide, the passable area is 4.20 m wide. The height of the bridge, which rises towards the middle, reaches 9 m at the apex. It consists of three arches, the middle one of which is higher than the two flanking ones. The central arch has a span of 16 m and the two flanking arches each have a span of 10.20 m. The central bridge pillars are also pierced by large arch openings in order to offer less attack surface to possible floods. The limestone

History of the building

The Roman bridge was part of Department Road 108 until spring 2005 and was used accordingly; At that time, a parallel bridge was put into operation about 100 m away as part of a short bypass road. Thanks to its 2,000 years of use, the Pont Julien is one of the best-preserved Roman bridges in France

Impressive building that has survived the millennia